Armenia Welcomes German President

I feel the spirits all around

Arising sweetly from the ground.

Life flows as if it were a dream,

I am as flower, leaf and tree.”

And he was the first to stress the point: “When a German Federal President stands in the Armenian capital and recites odes to spring penned in his home country,” he began, “then two things must be true. Spring is indeed here. And we are probably at the Komitas Museum-Institute, where German poetry — as we have just seen — very much has its place.”

The poem “April,” which he read in English translation, was written by German poet Theodor Storm and set to music by Komitas while he was a student in Berlin. Steinmeier cited this, as well as other German poems the great composer transposed into music, as “powerful evidence of this most famous Armenian composer’s connection with Western verse as well as music, from Franz Schubert to Richard Strauss.” Steinmeier said the great musicologist and clergyman “embodies like no other this Biblical land between Asia and Europe, a country shaped by a millennia old culture that is at once Eastern and Christian, marked by a history full of suffering, persecution, and exile.”

Not only was his biography closely linked to the history of Armenia, Steinmeier continued, but also to Germany: “His ties to Berlin make Komitas a trailblazer in German-Armenian relations in the fields of culture, religion and academia.” Thus, the unique appropriateness of the venue for honoring the bilateral relations in culture.

The German president concluded with the good news of another step in the cultural dialogue: the Goethe Center will be converted into an official Goethe Institute this year, “where the German-Armenian friendship has a home.”

He noted the growing interest in German language studies in Armenia, “reflected not least in almost 50 bilateral university cooperation arrangements” as well as in Germany, which has become second choice of Armenian students for study abroad. Steinmeier expressed the hope that Armenian students might soon be studying at Leipzig university, perhaps a reference to an agreement just signed between Yerevan and Leipzig for a city partnership. At the same time, Armenian TV broadcast the news that the rectors and prorectors of 19 German universities were hosted by the Armenian National University of Economics.

Church Leaders and Entrepreneurs

On April 1, the German guests left the capital for Lake Sevan, where they visited the Armenian church. Greeting them was Bishop Serovpé Isakhanyan, Primate of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Germany. And in Dilijan they saw the City Park Project for Renovation and Development. This project, initiated in 2022 to develop the city’s green public space, has been conducted with the active participation of local residents together with engineering, sociological, architectural, and other specialists.

Over lunch at a local restaurant, there was an opportunity to exchange ideas with local entrepreneurs.

And the afternoon program included a visit in Gegharkunik to a hydro-meteorological station being inaugurated as a joint project with the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research and the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ).

The final day of the presidential visit concluded at Vagharshapat, the Holy See of Echmiadzin, with a meeting with Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

From Yerevan to Baku

The last stop on Steinmeier’s Caucasus tour is Baku, where his schedule included meetings with President Ilham Aliev. The top agenda item is relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with focus on the perspectives for a peace treaty. It is to be hoped that another important issue was put on the agenda: the liberation of Armenians being held in prison in Azerbaijan.

Prior to the trip, a leading human rights organization in Germany issued an appeal to Steinmeier, entitled “Federal President must work for the release of Armenian political prisoners.”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) called on Steinmeier to “stand up for the rights of displaced Armenians, the release of Armenian political prisoners, and a just peace order in the region during his trip to Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Following the September 2023 attack by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh, and the expulsion of more than 120,000 Armenians, 16 leading political figures were arrested. Since their trial on January 17, 2025, they have been incarcerated, including the three former presidents of Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan, and Arkady Rukasyan.

Sarah Reinke, head of the STP’s human rights work, expressed great concern regarding “Azerbaijan’s repressive policy at home and the country’s aggressive foreign policy, especially towards Armenia.”

The STP warns that the current peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan could amount to a “dictated peace.” “Armenians around the world are protesting against the conditions being discussed, as they came about under military and political pressure,” wrote Reinke.

Together with the Working Group on Recognition – Against Genocide, for International Understanding (AGA), the STP called on Steinmeier to “form his own critical picture of this process and the texts of the treaties” and to “advocate for the EU Border Observation Commission (EUMA) to remain on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.” The STP opposes the proposed treaty, on grounds that “Azerbaijan has no right to demand constitutional changes from Armenia, because these are a purely internal matter and could only take place via a referendum.”

The STP urged Steinmeier to work for the release of Armenian political prisoners imprisoned in Azerbaijan. “We have reports of the torture of the prisoners. The court hearings are a pure farce,” the letter reads. “Please use your trip to show your solidarity with and support for the displaced Armenians and to ensure that the illegally detained former political leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh are released,” the organizations appeal.

In addition to the peace treaty, Steinmeier’s official agenda for the Baku stop included an exchange with Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious figures on “Understanding and Tolerance among Religions,” as well as a discussion about women in Azerbaijan.